If These Guys Build It, Fans Will Come

STADIUM ARCHITECTS

Paul Tagliabue was right. When the National Football League commissioner saw a model of the Cincinnati Bengals' new home--which abandoned the typical concrete bowl for a gleaming pair of crescent-shaped stands, he gushed, "It's going to take the NFL stadium to a new level." As proof, the project garnered national design awards, and its creators, Dan Meis and Ron Turner, have been hired to build or renovate a dozen high-profile sports arenas as well as brainstorm over the future of the mother ship, Madison Square Garden.

Meis and Turner, part of the architectural firm NBBJ Sports and Entertainment, serve up technical...